Completed PhDs

Murdoch University: • Dr Daniel Schubert, A multivariate adaptive trimmed likelihood algorithm, supervi- sor: Brenton Clarke. University of Melbourne: • Dr Christopher Fricke, Applications of integer programming in open pit mining, supervisor: Natashia Boland. • Dr Maya Ramakrishnan, Distributed approaches to capacity reallocation in networks, supervisors: Peter Taylor and Andre Costa. University of Western : • Dr Sophie Ambrose, Matrix Groups: Theory, algorithms and applications, supervi- sor: Cheryl Praeger. • Dr Scott Brown, Finite reducible matrix algebras, supervisors: Cheryl Praeger and Michael Giudici. • Dr Jing Xu, On closures of finite permutation groups, supervisors: Cheryl Praeger, Cai Heng Li and Michael Giudici.

Appointments

Swinburne University of Technology: • Professor William Phillips has been appointed to Professor of Engineering Mathe- matics in the Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences. He will become head of the Mathematics Dicipline. • Dr Geoff Brooks has been appointed Professor of Engineering Mathematics in the Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences. University of Melbourne: • Dr Peter Milley and Dr Stephan Tillmann have been appointed Research Fellows. University of Sydney: • Dr Gordon Monro and Associate Professor Bill Gibson have recently retired. • Dr Bartosz Trojan has been appointed as a postdoctoral fellow and Mr Yuezhu Wu as a research associate. • Dr Clio Cresswell has been reappointed as Senior Lecturer for another five years. Universtity of Western Australia: • Mr Kai Zhang has commenced as a Research Associate. 350 News

Awards and other achievements

Professor Tony Guttmann from the University of Melbourne was awarded the Szekeres Medal for 2006.

Dr Andrew Mathas from the University of Sydney was awarded the Australian Mathematical Society Medal for 2006.

Ben Wilson from the University of Sydney has been awarded the BH Neumann prize for the best talk by a student at the Annual Meeting of Australian Mathematical Society.

Professor Eugene Seneta, Emeritus Professor of Statistics of the University of Sydney, has been awarded the Moyal Medal for 2006. The Moyal Medal is awarded annually by Mac- quarie University and recognizes distinguished contributions to research in mathematics, physics or statistics.

New Books

K.H. Hofmann (Technische Universit¨atDarmstadt) & S.A. Morris (University of Ballarat), Structure of Compact Groups: A Primer for Students, a Handbook for the Expert, second edition, Studies in Mathematics 25 (de Gruyter Berlin 2006).

Conferences

5th Ballarat workshop on Global and Non-Smooth Optimization: Theory, Meth- ods and Applications 28–30 November 2006, University of Ballarat, Victoria Conference Co-ordinator: Maxine Kingston Enquiries: Maxine Kingston and Adil Bagirov E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Web: http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/itms/CIAO/Workshops/OTMA3.shtml

Summer School and Workshop on Granular Materials 4–8 December 2006, Australian National University, Canberra, VIC Organisers: Peter Arnold Web: http://wwwrsphysse.anu.edu.au/granularmatter/committee.php

8th Pacific Rim Conference 11–15 December 2006, Murramarang, South Durras, NSW Organisers: Ben Andrews, Alan Carey, Alexander Isaev, Neil Trudinger and Xu-Jia Wang News 351

E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/events/pacrim06

Amenability of Groups and Algebras 4–8 January 2007, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT Organizers: H.G. Dales, A. Kepert, R.J. Loy and G.A. Willis Web: http://www.maths.anu.edu.au/aga07/aga.html

From Statistical Mechanics to Conformal and Quantum Field Theory (a Special Theme Program) 8 January–8 February 2007, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute Headquar- ters, University of Melbourne, VIC Organisers: Paul Pearce (Australia), Giuseppe Mussardo () and Chaiho Rim (Korea) Web: http://mac0916.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~pap/StatMechFieldTheory2007

ANZIAM 2007 Conference: The 43rd Applied Mathematics Conference and the first WA Branch of Australian Statistical Society Statistics Day 28 January–1 February 2007 (Statistics Day: 29 Jan), Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia Conference Co-ordinator: Graeme Hocking. Enquiries: Graeme Hocking, Duncan Farrow, Marty Firth (for Statistics Day) E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Web: http://www.anziam07.murdoch.edu.au

Invited speakers are: Adrian Baddeley - University of Western Australia Nigel Bean - University of Adelaide Peter Clarkson - University of Kent, UK Phil Howlett - University of South Australia Ian James - Murdoch University Greg Kriegsmann - New Jersey Institute of Technology Mark M. Meerschaert - The University of Otago, NZ Hinke Osinga - University of Bristol, UK Graeme Wake - Massey University, NZ

Mathematics in Industry Study Group 5–9 February 2007, University of Wollongong, Wollongong Campus, NSW. Organisers: Maureen Edwards and Tim Marchant E-mail: maureen [email protected] Web: http://www.misg.math.uow.edu.au 352 News

GL07 Geometry and Lie Theory: A conference marking Gus Lehrer’s 60th birth- day First week: 2–6 July 2007, Australian National University, Canberra. Second week: 9–13 July 2007, University of Sydney, NSW Organisers: James Borger, Peter Bouwknegt, Anthony Henderson, Bob Howlett, Amnon Neeman and Andrew Mathas. Web: http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SemConf/lehrerfest.html

Visiting mathematicians

Visitors are listed in the order of the last date of their visit and details of each visitor are presented in the following format: name of visitor; home institution; dates of visit; principal field of interest; principal host institution; contact for enquiries.

Prof. William Messing; University of Minnesota; 1 to 30 November 2006; p-adic Shimura varieties; USN; K.F. Lai Dr Colva Mary Roney-Dougal; University of St. Andrews; 13 November to 1 December 2006; Algorithms for groups and Lie groups; USN; J.J. Cannon Prof. Eric Rains; University of California Davis; 5 September to 3 December 2006; –; UMB; Prof P.J Forrester Dr Alex Kitaev; Steklov Institute; 11 August to 6 December 2006; Singularities and inte- grable systems; USN; N. Joshi Dr Eamonn O’Brien; University of Auckland; 26 November - 6 December 2006; –; UWA; Prof Cheryl Praeger Prof. Krzysztof Kurdyka; –; 24 to 9 December 2006; Hyperpolic polynominals; USN; L. Paunescu Dr Peter Brooksbank; Bucknell University; 26 November - 10 December 2006; –; UWA; Prof Cheryl Praeger Dr Dorette Pronk; Dalhousie University; 10 September to 15 December; Category Theory; MQU; Prof. Ross Street Dr Natalia Kopteva; Universit´ede Provence; 15 October to 15 December 2006; –; UMB; – Prof. Fima Klebaner; Monash University; 15 October to 15 December 2006; –; UMB; – Jonathan James; Uni of Cambridge; 1 November to 21 December 2006; –; UWA; Prof Cheryl Praeger and Dr Michael Giudici Akos Seress; Ohio State University; 1 to 21 December 2006; and combina- torics; UWA; Cheryl Praeger Dr Andreas Bley; Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum f¨ur Informationstechnik; 19 September to 22 De- cember 2006; –; UMB; – Mr Thomas Houtmann; Lix Ecole Polytechnique; 14 to 23 December 2006; Complex multi- plication of genus 2 curves; USN; D.R. Kohel Dr Zheng-Xue Tang; Deakin University; 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006; Computer simulation of textile yarn spinning; USN; W.B. Fraser Marta Remmenga; New Mexico State University; January to December 2006; –; UWA; Prof Adrian Baddeley News 353

Prof. Dan Schafer; Oregon State University; 1 February to 31 December 2006; –; UWA; Dr Berwin Turlach Mr Danker Adriaan Roozemond; Eindhoven University; 30 April to 31 December 2006; Al- gorithms for Lie Theory; USN; J.J. Cannon Dr Duncan Farrow; Murdoch University; July to December 2006; –; UWA; Prof. Andrew Bassom Dr Jesse Johnson; University of California Davis; 1 August to 31 December 2006; –; UMB; Dr Paul Hammerton; University of East Anglia; September to December 2006; –; UWA; Prof. Andrew Bassom Prof. Satoshi Koike; Hyogo University; 22 December 2006 to 14 January 2006; Bilipshitz homeomorphisms; USN; L. Paunescu Dr Damien Stehle; French Ministry of Education; 29 January 2006 to 28 January 2007; Lat- tice reduction; USN; J.J. Cannon Mrs Horanage Chandrika Fernando; Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology; 1 July 2006 to 31 January 2007; –; UMB; – Prof. Eva Vedel Jensen; University of Aarhus; December 2006 to January 2007; Stereology; UWA; Prof Adrian Baddeley Dr Mark Watkins; University of Bristol; 26 November 2006 to 4 February 2007; Analytic number theory; USN; J.J. Cannon Prof. Hechun Zhang; Tsingua University; 29 January to 25 February 2007; Lie algebras and quantam groups; USN; R. Zhang Dr Pramod Achar; Louisiana State University; 18 to 26 February 2007; Geometric represen- tation theory; USN; A. Henderson Frederick Vercauteren; Catholic University Leuven; 2 September 2006 to 28 February 2007; Number Theory and Cryptography; USN; J.J. Cannon Prof. Wieslaw Krawcewicz; University of Montreal; 15 January to 31 March 2006; Symmetric topological invariants and their application to non-linear elliptic partial differential equations; USN; E.N. Dancer Dominic Schuhmacher; University of Zurich; 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007; –; UWA; Prof. Adrian Baddeley Dr Hidekazu Nagahata; Okayama University; 27 September 2006 to 31 March 2007; –; UMB; – Mr Sergei Haller; Justus-Liebig-Universit¨at,Gießen; 16 January 2006 to 11 May 2007; Al- gorithmic methods for Lie groups; USN; S. Murray Stephen Glasby; Central Washington University; Late February to June 2007; –; UWA; Cheryl Praeger Mr Ioannis Souldatos, PhD Student; UCLA; 1 September 2006 to 31 July 2007; –; UMB; – Prof. Buyung-Moo Kim; Chungju National; 31 July 2006 to 31 July 2007; Integral Theory; USN; D.E. Taylor Prof. Nicholas Fisher; International Statistics Institute; 1 September 2004 to 31 August 2007; Statistics; J. Robinson ; Cambridge University; mid-November 2006 to December 2007; –; UWA; Cheryl Praeger Prof. Richard Cowan; University of Sydney; 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007; Stochastic models; USN; J.Robinson Dr Youyun Li; Hunan Changsha University; 1 May 2006 to 1 May 2008; –; UWA; Dr Song Wang